Word.ws English Dictionary

flocculate

flocculate verb: to collect (suspended particles, sediment, etc.) into loose, fluffy aggregations resembling tufts of wool.

flocculate: to collect (suspended particles, sediment, etc.) into loose, fluffy aggregations resembling tufts...
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Verb

flocculate (third-person singular simple present flocculates, present participle flocculating, simple past and past participle flocculated)

  1. (ambitransitive) To collect (suspended particles, sediment, etc.) into loose, fluffy aggregations resembling tufts of wool.
    • When applied to clay soils it [lime] binds the small particles together, or flocculates them.
    • For example, when the Mississippi water flows into the saline water of the Gulf of Mexico, much of the matter that was held suspended in the river-water is flocculated at once, so that it can subside. Such action as this is one prime cause of the formation of deltas, for the flocculation of fine...1897, Frank Humphreys Storer, Agriculture in Some of Its Relations with Chemistry, volume 2, page 590

Adjective

flocculate (not comparable)

  1. Having flock form or forms.

Noun

flocculate (plural flocculates)

  1. A mass that has suffered flocculation.

flocculate meaning in Arabic

flocculate in Arabic

To collect forms like flocks
تَلَبَّدَ talabbada

Synonyms of flocculate

Forms of flocculate

Verb
third-person singular presentflocculates
present participleflocculating
past participleflocculated
pastflocculated
Noun
pluralflocculates

Origin of flocculate

Scientific internationalism; from Latin flocculus + -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3), diminutive of floccus (“a lock, tuft”).

Words formed from flocculate

Questions about flocculate

What does flocculate mean?
Flocculate means to collect (suspended particles, sediment, etc.) into loose, fluffy aggregations resembling tufts of wool.
What is flocculate in Arabic?
Flocculate in Arabic is تَلَبَّدَ (talabbada). See Flocculate meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is flocculate?
Flocculate can be a verb, an adjective or a noun.
What is the past tense of flocculate?
The past tense of flocculate is flocculated.

Words near flocculate in the dictionary

  1. floccosity
  2. flocculable
  3. flocculant
  4. flocculants
  5. floccular
  6. flocculate
  7. flocculated
  8. flocculates
  9. flocculating
  10. flocculation
  11. flocculations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flocculate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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